Recently saw this video about Why We Don't Like to Wait, and I think one interesting point that it brings up is that waiting makes people anxious as it creates feelings of uncertainty. And often businesses can alleviate these feelings not even by reducing the wait time, but by simply addressing anxiousness and uncertainty. And I think the most pertinent example for online stores would be simply telling people how much time they have left to wait for their orders.

As this video points out, people who were told how much longer they had to wait for something to load felt less anxious than those who were given no information at all. I think that one possible way that online dealers can help to alleviate consumer anxiousness is to simply keep people updated about ETAs. If the ETA of a toy becomes delayed then just tell people. You don't need to email everyone who's preordered the toy, just make single public posts. And of course, be professional and courteous about it.

I think it's the radio silence that many of us experience from some online dealers that drives us nuts, and it is because we are given feelings of uncertainty which feeds anxiousness, and this in turn leads to frustration and even anger. So surely addressing the feelings of uncertainty in the first place will help to arrest all the other negative emotions that would spring from it. And we aren't unjustified in our feelings of uncertainty either as many of us have had orders completely fail to arrive. Voldemort Collectibles is the most notorious example, but I've personally have had orders fail to arrive from TLTC (although I did receive refunds) and I have a long outstanding order from TBI with no word as to what's going on.

Waiting in traffic is often frustrating because it creates feelings of uncertainty and anxiousness. But I find that when I sometimes stop at a red light where the pedestrian crossing shows a timer, it helps to alleviate this feeling as it indicates when the next light change will be. And in some other countries all traffic lights have timers, including the lights for motorists. So you might arrive at a red light and see that you have say 90 seconds to wait and watch the seconds count down towards 0. It's probably the exact same wait time as lights without a visible timer, but simply being able to see the timer can make the wait feel less frustrating.